World's smallest movie

Capt'n Midnight · 01-05-2013 11:34am #1

http://www.techdigest.tv/2013/05/ibm_make_worlds.html

Ray Harryhausen, eat your heart out! IBM have taken stop-motion video making to the atomic level, making the "world's smallest movie" with atoms.

moving individual carbon atoms on copper

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSCX78-8-q0

Zombienosh · 01-05-2013 12:41pm

Pretty awesome

patmac · 01-05-2013 1:53pm

I thought the dialog wasn't great and the acting a bit wooden.

Celly Smunt · 01-05-2013 3:58pm

I liked the part when the boy had the atom.

CrazyRabbit · 01-05-2013 6:03pm

Ah..now I know why the bonuses were so small this year.

flutterflye · 01-05-2013 8:46pm

It's kinda cool I guess

Just not really seeing the point of it.

Capt'n Midnight · 01-05-2013 11:39pm

flutterflye wrote: »

It's kinda cool I guess
Just not really seeing the point of it.

It would be very hard to see the point seeing as how it's way smaller than a wavelength of light :pac:

You know those guys who carve faces on matchsticks or write stuff on grains of rice ? This is like that taken to the very limits of physics. (OK you could probably use lithium but carbon is way more interesting , graphene is weird and very very strong. )

Each of the dot's are individual carbon atoms which they dragged into position with two tonnes of equipment, at 5 Kelvin.

Dempsey · 01-05-2013 11:43pm

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

It would be very hard to see the point seeing as how it's way smaller than a wavelength of light :pac:

You know those guys who carve faces on matchsticks or write stuff on grains of rice ? This is like that taken to the very limits of physics. (OK you could probably use lithium but carbon is way more interesting , graphene is weird and very very strong. )

Each of the dot's are individual carbon atoms which they dragged into position with two tonnes of equipment, at 5 Kelvin.

i lit my own fart once :P

flutterflye · 02-05-2013 12:00am

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

It would be very hard to see the point seeing as how it's way smaller than a wavelength of light :pac:

You know those guys who carve faces on matchsticks or write stuff on grains of rice ? This is like that taken to the very limits of physics. (OK you could probably use lithium but carbon is way more interesting , graphene is weird and very very strong. )

Each of the dot's are individual carbon atoms which they dragged into position with two tonnes of equipment, at 5 Kelvin.

Hardiharhar

People who carve matchstick are making art, and cheaply at that.
I'm just wondering wtf IBM are bothering to waste money on something that pointless!

im invisible · 02-05-2013 12:01am

up and at them!

Capt'n Midnight · 02-05-2013 12:38am

flutterflye wrote: »

Hardiharhar

People who carve matchstick are making art, and cheaply at that.
I'm just wondering wtf IBM are bothering to waste money on something that pointless!

WOW I'm impressed that RTE is the first site I've seen with the technical details

http://www.rte.ie/news/2013/0501/389843-ibm-creates-worlds-smallest-movie-from-atoms/

In the video, individual carbon monoxide molecules are repeatedly rearranged to show a boy dancing, throwing a ball and bouncing on a trampoline.

Each frame measures 45 by 25 nanometers, there are 25 million nanometers in an inch, but hugely magnified.

The other explanation is that the IBM people figured out a way to avoid hard work for a week

The thing about pure research is you don't know where it might lead. And IBM & co,. have pulled a lot of rabbits out of the hat over the years.

An earlier IBM computer occupied 20,000 square feet, used 3MW of power with a performance of 75,000 instructions per second. but Tahiti can evaluate 7.6 terapixels per second so you can buy a second hand video card that's 100 million times faster.

endacl · 02-05-2013 12:45am

Meh. Unimpressed. Show me the biggest movie, planets as pixels! Now that would be a sight to see.

I'd probably need a bigger laptop screen though...

Seriously though. Wow! The things they can do...

NIMAN · 02-05-2013 12:58am

I'm confused.

So each little ball is an individual atom?

Well if I remember from my physics class many moons ago, an atom is a nucleus with an electron cloud spinning around it?

So does the fact that each atom looks like a ball bearing in this clip mean that the silver. metallic effect is actually us looking at electrons spinnng?

CrazyRabbit · 02-05-2013 1:57am

flutterflye wrote: »

It's kinda cool I guess
Just not really seeing the point of it.

Basically, they are working on new ways of storing data. Every Hard Disk Drive manufactured at the moment uses technology created by IBM which allows the super high capacity we all enjoy. (frequently referred to as 'pixie dust'...google it!).

But, there are density limits for the current methods of storing data (magnetically), so there is a rush to find the next method. Whomever succeeds will dominate the storage industry.